spiritual food for thought

Menu

middle

Have you ever been in the middle of something & felt like you’re kind of in limbo? Sometimes, I feel like this between Christmas and New Years. There’s a nice exhale after all the frenzied Christmas flurry but I can also feel the New Year coming into focus, even though I’m not quite ready for that yet.

Limbo land is kind of a weird place. It’s the middle area between starting & finishing, so it can be a short little jaunt, like a quick trip to the grocery store, or the entirety of life between birth & death. When I think about this middle space, I’m reminded of lots of Bible folk who found themselves in this experience:

David in his flight from Saul lived for many years in this middle space, where God cultivated strength, committment & maturity in him.

Moses lived in limbo land between his flight from Pharoah and the burning bush, where it looks like some of his youthful hubris was deflated over the course of 40 years, making him ready for the burning bush experience that launched his destiny to liberate the Israelites from slavery and so much more!

Peter had some limbo time between when he betrayed Jesus and was reconciled to Him after Jesus’ resurrection; perhaps those days helped Peter see his utter dependence on Jesus in sharp contrast to his frail flesh, being reconciled through the loving interaction with Jesus in the Q&A session about Peter’s love for Jesus

Let’s be sure to keep a laser focus on Jesus in between the holidays 🙂

As much as I don’t want to admit this, I’m concerned that I have a disturbing pattern in my life: leaving things half done :/

While I don’t leave everything half done, there are definitely things that I don’t finish, such as: not completing my bookshelf project, starting innumerable books but not finishing them, doing half of the ironing, writing part of a story, etc. Of course this could be very discouraging if I let myself quagmire in this awareness, but I have a fail-safe solution: God doesn’t quit!

In Philippians 1:6 it says, “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” Be encouraged that you’re a masterpiece in the making & the Holy Spirit is continuing to shape & grow you, never quitting, getting discouraged or giving up on you! God’s not finished!

Do you have some situations in your life that seem to be unfinished? Take a minute to consider that the day between Good Friday & Easter (today) seems to often get overlooked in light of the events on the adjacent days. But this middle day is necessary & very frequently where many of us live at various times & in various situations. If we think about it, beginnings and endings seem to get lots of attention, but the middle is the bridge & continuity between the beginning & the end. Here are a few things to help you manage the middle:

Rest: sometimes the middle is about taking a pause – when Jesus was in the tomb on Sat, His disciples had the Sabbath, which was a day of rest & pause;

Trust: it’s important to agree that God gives us what we need when we need it, including the middle season; when Jesus rose from the dead, there was a TREMENDOUS amount of activity so the Saturday pause was essential

Be present on this day: I have no doubt in my mind that Jesus’ disciples were 100% traumatized by what happened on Good Friday & were most likely totally consumed with what had just happened (yesterday) or what was going to happen (tomorrow)

Faith: Jesus told His disciples many times that He would raise from the dead after 3 days; God’s promises are solid and reliable